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Thread: World Dom by 1750?

  1. #21

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    Lol. I guess I'm always at a point where I may or may not make it soon.

    Update.
    Things took off with a bang. For the first turn in 1719, I invaded Venetia. It actually turned out to be a tough battle once I could get it started. Took me 7 reloads to get the computer to give me the proper path. It kept sending me around the other way for some reason... Even with the Right-click and Hold trick.

    Then on the next turn, Austria declared war and Savoy joined the fray, but GB opted to keep it's nose clean rather than go to war with me. In 1710, I was 2nd from the bottom in prestige. In 1718 I was just a bit behind GB in 2nd place.

    Austria's war turned out to be something of a cakewalk. I had been dreading it, but I had little to worry about. In one rather embarrassing battle, I led 1200 soldiers against 1900 Austrians (to take Prague) and lost 117 men. Ouch! Each of 3 grenadier units took around 170-183 kills with minimal losses. They were still using Demi-Cannons. Lots of them. I took Prague, Silesia, Vienna and Hungary with insignficant losses. Finally I am putting out real arty, with howitzers now replacing my 12 lber foot. Oddly, I discovered that I could recruit them immediately in the fully built secondary capitals when I still could not build them in many of my major cities.

    Also took - Newfoundland, Michigan, Huron and Savoy. Traded Maine (no exports and 147/turn) for Rupert's Land. Got a rake and a stack and a half headed up that way. I think I will send them down to the Black Hills when done. I have a missionary on the way in that direction to scout. Mexico fell to the Pueblo nations. I'm OK with that. I will lead the assault on the Pueblos with leftovers from Newfie. Got a full stack with Howies on the way to the Inuit (I usually leave these guys alone, but I notice that they do tend to recruit a lot). He will come down afterwards and hopefully when he arrives at Georgia, I can use him to nail the full stack sitting there and coordinate attacks from other forces. I am preparing armies in Louisiana (howies and Line plus I made a whole bunch of native warriors)

    Portugal is dead. Sort of disappointing. I've really dropped the ball on India. Maratha is going crazy, taking Mysore, Bengal and Gujarat in 2 turns. I have started preparing armies for my assault on them from Ceylon. I was really hoping to be able to take Bengal. It looks like I'm going to end up probably going to war against the Maratha first though. Got to plan that one out as things aren't going well for me.

    Spain is making efforts to trade me for France. They are obviously afraid of me. They have offered a couple of times all of their European holdings save Portugal and Naples for France. I think I will build a few more ships and go for it. 6 territories for France, with me holding a stack basically everywhere. I would then be able to rub them out in just a few turns. Italian States DoW on me in 1719 too, so I have an open invitation to conquer that. Then I think I can use that stack to take Naples, the stack in Savoy to take Madrid and build a stack in Flanders/Amsterdam to retake Paris.

    The year is 1722, turn 45. I own 33 territories. 3.5 full stacks in America. 4.5 full stacks in Europe and half a stack in Ceylon. I am making 28k a turn (down from a peak of 33k for 1720) but only 2 trade partners... One of which is Maratha and I will need to attack them to control India. There are only 3 trade nodes that I do not own. One is Spain, one is Mughal and one is Marath.

    Goals for 1725 - clean up the last of Austria and build a small transport fleet. Take Rome, and Morea if possible. Prepare 2 more stacks for war in Spain/Portugal/Naples and trade France for 6 territories+tech+money. Launch into Goa and Sindh and try to beat the Marath northwards. I want a good presence before I throw away their trade. Complete conquest of Huron and send troops to Black Hills. Take the Inuit Territory. Take Mexico and the Pueblo Nations. Then launch massive assault on Spanish holdings in the Americas.

    After that, I'll have to let the other countries make the decisions for me as to where I go next.

  2. #22
    Sir Furlong's Avatar Ordinarius
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    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    What was the issues with the path when attacking Venice? Also nice to see you steam rolled Austria, seems to happen to them every time, such as my current campaign where they and Poland pushed Prussia back to just Berlin, now Prussia controls most of the old Austria lands (including Bavaria).

  3. #23

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    Not sure why, but I was just a few steps away walking through the mountains from Bavaria and when I right clicked to attack Venetia, it reworked the path to have the army walk around, about 3-4 turns walk... I use right-click and hold, which shows the path that it will take, but it didn't make a difference. It said it would send me through direct, but kept sending me around. In the end, I just inched my way until I was literally right on top of it, then it let me attack normally. Weird stuff. I've seen strange stuff like that before though.

    Austria was funny. They got really strong, really fast. They easily corralled Prussia and had taken everything up to Brandenburg. They were allied with me and stabbed me in the back to DoW, so I made them pay for it. I decimated their armies, cruising all the way back to Transylvania, then sieging them (so they couldn't call in more troops) once they started building the State Capitol. When they finished, I pulverized them without any trouble whatsoever. Had a 9 star general and outnumbered them 3:1. And my tech is coming along much better now than in the early game.

    1722-1726 was fairly uneventful. I ploughed through Savoy and onwards to Genoa, then sent them over by ship. Genoa had this bizarre idea to send their pathetic little fleets out of the Mediterranean where I had 3 freshly built 3rd's within easy reach. Venetia did the same, but had a fairly decent stack of 6 ships and managed to sink two of my 3rds. Also something rather amusing was the Genovese army in Corsica had something like 9 units of DemiCannons... I was fortunate enough to have the high ground and I spread out my units just a little too far up the hill for them in a nice arc with Howies in the center to draw their ire. After dispatching their line infantry with little trouble, they took all of their demi cannons and had them leave their cannons behind to CHARGE UPHILL at me in melee mode! To add insult to injury, the General made it halfway up the hill before running away and trying to skirt my main line to flank me... walking into 5 ready line inf... The crazy thing was that they actually managed to get 3 units in to my line to melee. I doubt they scored many kills though... pity the fools...

    Had some real fun with dueling. Prussia had LOADS of gentlemen infecting my schools. After a few failures (the guy had bonuses to dueling and he still lost 5 times in a row) and a couple of frustrating moments when the computer kept moving troops from the city when I had clearly indicated to move the agent, I had 3 nice dueling successes. 2 of them saw pistols blowing up in the face. Dueling is pretty fun if you get a chance. Prussia lost an 8 star gentleman heheheh.

    Pueblo Nations were as tough as ever, having long since reached their full tech (as had the Huron). Had some extremely nasty battles against them. Lost 90% of my men in a stack with only 4 Line infantry recruited mostly in 'snowball' fashion from the states when I took Mexico. Their response was vicious and they had me holed up in mexico under seige for a turn. I guess I had probably less than a 10% chance against them. I had 6 units of Native warriors left, all with less than 25 men, 2 units of Native cav with less than 15 men and 4 Line with 30-85 men in each. All in all, around 540 men vs their 950. I had scraped together a rather paltry force on their back door though, with 3 line infantry (with not enough movement points to make it to their capital), 2 Howies (also with not enough movement to reach their capital), 2 Mounted native musketmen and 6 units of native warriors. I had to fight two separate battles, with the first bringing in the Howies and Line as backup and about 900 of mine vs 900 of theirs, then again to take their capital with another 800 men. Vicious, vicious fighting. Only one native warrior with decent numbers left, all the rest under 20men. They still had 2 more half stacks on the way to Mexico plus the 950 men sieging... then they experienced sudden existence failure... oopsie

    Much of the same against the Inuit. Took serious losses on that one.

    The same up in the NWT against the Huron. I scouted first with a rake, I saw 1.5 stacks plus enough for the other half stack to go to full with mob units. I tried to lure some away by ransacking the McChickens out of their fur trading post. When they didn't go for that after two turns, I decided to go on the offensive. I figured on a fairly tough battle, as I had 8 units of line (1 and 2 chevron), 6 units of Bowmen, 3 Native Musket Cavalry, no melee forces and a crappy 12lb foot arty with only 12 men left. One stack plus 3 units. Turned out that they had 2 stacks completely hidden. Even without the mob units of their town, they had over 5000 men. (3 stacks of 1820+ and half a stack of about 1100). I had less than 1300. Needless to say, I retreated. Tried again a bit later when everything had completely replenished and tried an autoresolve with my 9 star general. I was stunned to see them run away. Done like dinner. That was going to be ROUGH. Phew.

    I like the native warriors - especially when used with 2-4 units in a regular European stack in Europe or India, so I am currently experimenting with what may be a bug or may be a trick. Native Warriors can only be trained in the Magistrate's building, so I recruited 9 units. I'll see what happens when the building changes. Would be great if I could continue to train a bunch and send them on sloops off to India...

    Also saw the most unusual thing. Traded Iroquois territory to GB for the Bahamas and some tech. Almost immediately, they razed the weaver's cottage and the fur trading post... They LEFT the protestant church standing!!! Craziness.

    My campaign has slowed in Europe (took Italian States after a pretty fun battle and I was getting throttled by Venice's amazingly strong fleets with no access for my 3rd rates at the Gibraltar bottleneck, so I traded Croatia for peace until I can move my ready troops against Morea) and started in India. When Portugal went belly up, I sent 1 turns' worth of line + grens plus my starting general to take Goa (just in time, as the Maratha had already taken Mysore and had troops within Goa's confines carrying out raids, but unable to defeat the surprisingly strong Rebels. I also sent my troops northward, as Gujarat had already fallen and just as I landed troops in Sindh, on the turn that would have let them move, Maratha moved in and took Sindh, sending my troops back to Goa. *fume*

    I have begun pouring troops into India as fast as possible from Ceylon. Two sloops are doing alternating runs. I started in 1724 and I already have Hindustan. The poor fools sent troops to try to retake Bengal... a fool's errand indeed as I moved in on their surprisingly robust (is that 16 units of mob? even though their actual units were few, that actually hurt!). The Mughals just lost Rajputana as well and I have brought a full stack to the edge of Punjab territory. Thankfully, half of their forces are heading off to retake Raj... doubtful...

    I am loathe to attack them as they are basically my only 'friend'. GB has been Hostile for ages with over -300 in diplo's. Maratha are the only nation "Friendly" thanks to our long standing trade agreement (I only managed to make 2 trade partners... even the Ottoman have been stubborn this time round) Everyone has asked for major regions for trade agreements. Oh yeah, Austria was on again, off again for a few years...

    So at 1726 now. Turn 52. I have 45 territories. Still vast tracts of land are untouched and inaccessible (although I have rakes moving into Kiev already). I've started moving troops into position to start picking off Spain's American territories and I'm convinced that I can trade them Gibraltar, Lombardy, Florida, New Mexico and Sardinia for France. I've seen it come up a few times, but I just wasn't ready yet. So I'm behind on my goal for Spain (1725), but I'm almost read for it, so I doubt they will see 1730. The real question is can I move fast enough to clean the outer reaches of Sweden, Russia, the Ottoman Territories all the way through to Morocco before the timer runs out....

    I am taking about 2 turns in 5 to build economy. I am now double the prestige of GB (only slightly ahead of the Maratha though...) and they have run out of tech to give me. I have 9 Traditional Universities. Rights of Man, Wealth of nations are only 4 turns away. Most of the rest of the techs are taken care of. Got Palatial Estates going in in a few places. Average income is 42-44k. I have 2 full stacks in India, recruiting like mad in Ceylon and Hindustan, 4 stacks in Europe and 3.5 in the Americas. Around 40k/turn for Army upkeep.
    Last edited by eschelar; May 01, 2012 at 06:27 AM.

  4. #24
    Sir Furlong's Avatar Ordinarius
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    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    How much of your income depends on trade at this point? Will you be able to survive when you attack the Marathas and GB?

  5. #25

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    It's around 46k from trade, with a little over 50k from cities. A full blockade would be 'unpleasant' as I have 50k in army upkeep. Once my armies clean up in the Black Hills and Cherokee nations, I will pare them down. Same for the armies currently riding towards the Spanish Colonies. The Spanish presence in the Americas is broad, but weak. They are well overextended.

    However, I'm typically pretty conservative and I've always got a plan for a blockade. I recently got blockaded for a couple of turns by the Genovese and Venetians who somehow managed to get fleets out of the med. It sucked a bit, but even though it was unexpected, I was ready for it. I had armies that I could have disbanded to free up 10k a turn (which would have been enough), but instead, I chose to run an army against a difficult foe in a couple of areas. Taking heavy losses on 3 fronts freed up 23k/turn which was enough to stay on my feet.

    Battles in the campaign are subtly different from battles in multiplayer in that some battles are difficult to win without heavy losses (especially melee-heavy ones against the native factions), so I tend to make armies for their intended purposes. Some armies are intended stick around for only a few turns. Some battles are intended to lose me a lot of my army so I can free up cash quickly.

    It's a tough balance though and I'm very worried about attacking Maratha (which will need to happen within the next 5 turns probably). I have spent a lot of extra time building economy in the past 10 turns to prevent getting wrecked by this. I expect that the money lost from trading with Maratha will be recouped about 5 turns after cleaning them from the board simply in taxes.

    GB needs to survive as long as possible. In a pinch, I can probably make the Ottomans a trade partner by sacrificing a territory somewhere (probably Genoa or Savoy, or once I take out Morea, I will have Croatia again and they seem to like that one.

    Eventually, the road to World Domination will mean walking alone, but I will try to prevent that as long as possible and keep GB.

    I usually find that 2 trade partners tends to yield peak trading results, but one is usually sufficient if they are large enough.

    Poland and Prussia will likely fall by 1735 and I'll have a good chunk of Russia too by then I expect. GB in 1740 or so or later if I don't have the Ottoman's started yet.
    1730 will see Spain in my hands and I will be working on Morocco and Tunis. Those armies will move into Ottoman Territories about 3-4 turns later which will be facing heavy military pressure from Kiev and Central Europe. I also have to plan time for Iceland and Sweden. I'll probably use forces for Denmark for Ireland, so that means that they will be sent a bit later.

  6. #26

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    I'd like to see some screens if possible.
    this is pretty crazy i'm currently doing UP on M/H it's 1720 and i have some of canada, western germany, and 2 provinces in india, i control all but 5 trade nodes but the wars against the natives and Spanish aren't progressing well. I'm frankly completely skeptical i'll be able to make significant progress in europe untill i mop up the spanish and french in americas. Great Britain and Prussia are good allies, Prussia may fall but is holding strong against a combined swedish and Polish(whom control austria's provinces) assault. making around 12k a turn but with a very vunerable and weak navy, i fear a blockade and raids against my trade nodes would set my world dom back by 20 years or so, i think the soonest i could do it is 1775.

  7. #27

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    Fighting the Spanish early was probably the biggest area of divergence. I couldn't handle them early game because they had too many territories overseas and wayyyy too much navy. I knew I could handle France though... So when France and Spain DoW on me early on, I requested peace with Spain. It worked. I had to placate them a couple of times in the midgame, but they were fighting against the British and their navy just couldn't keep up. I have been under constant threat of blockade and it has happened a few times (Prussia, Genoa, Venetia) and lots of naval trade raids. Like I said above, staying clean of these is priority. I went against the French hard and being able to focus on them gave me the advantage to move swiftly.

    Oddly, in my game, Prussia got beaten back by Austria a bit and when I moved in on them, they got landlocked surrounded by Poland and Courland. With 2.5 stacks, neither Poland nor Courland wants to mess with them, so they have just been sitting there buying tech from me whenever I need a bit of extra cash. We are still technically at war too... heheheh.

    PS. the above statement of 49k/turn is wrong. my error. 46k/turn from taxes, 42k/turn from trade. Army maint was at 49k, so I was making approx 40k/turn. It has been as high as 49k and recently as low as 34k.

    I was thinking of doing some screenies too. Too disorganized for that... at this point. I'll try to do some tomorrow.

    Update:

    Things went a bit sideways for me in India. After taking a nearly undefended Hindustan, I moved on too quickly. I saw an army heading towards Raj and an army heading towards me from Punjab. I moved forwards all along roads and just at the edge of my engagement area, I was able to attack their full stack. 2090men vs my 1100. Yowch. I managed it with 476 men lost!!! I really, really like carcass shot. Seems way more effective than explosive shells or even quicklime. One oddity: I've fought three major battles where I was able to take strong advantage of howitzers with carcass. In this battle, it was most pronounced since I was able to take a significant height advantage and they tired out half way up the hill and retreated. Twice. Most units were down to half or less before even engaging my infantry. But in each of the battles I have paid attention, my howitzers have listed kills in the low 20's. Considering that they each killed around 400 men in the battle, I'm a little confused. Feels like there's some sort of accuracy bonus on Carcass. It actually felt like I was directing where they were shooting instead of just pointing in a general direction...

    So I got in a pinch with the Mughals when I finished the battle in very good shape, but at the end of the turn, the Mughal army moved farther than I could on roads, covering half the distance over plain land, then linking in to a road and putting his 795 men against my 2 defense units in Hindustan. Oddly, when I first assaulted the city, they had 16 'grey' units defending. I only had 2. (2nd level of fortifications only) I suspect there's something there I don't quite understand. I lost 23k in investments in the city and boy was I CHEESED. Took me two turns to get Hindustan back with my reinforcements. Just in time too, one turn later, my military access with Maratha expired. dangit. But I have taken Punjab and Kashmir and now control the north. Now it's Maratha's turn to sweat. Things are gonna get ugly for them very soon. (2 turns approx) Ceylon just started being able to recruit Mortar now too... yum.

    Venetia passed in 1726 thanks to a naval invasion. Quite happy with that bunch of infantry. 3 units of 3 chevron and all the rest are 2 chevron. All 120 men. They intercepted me before I was able to land my reinforcement stack and I had forgotten to replenish a couple of units (tight for cash at the time), so I fought 1320 of their with 1200 of mine. I lost 117 men. They had a lot of Provincial cav and kept trying to flank me. My partial units were sitting on the sides in square and I had a couple units ready for that to move into a line supporting the square. I also used my general to pick up nearly 60 kills with 2 losses (he started with 17 men) They charged me after losing 200 men to carcass... heheheh. I autoresolved on the empty capitol and lost 14 men.

    With my armies in place in 1727 (the same turn as I lost Hindustan), I was given the exact combination of provinces that I had been waiting for from Spain. France for: Lombardy, Gibraltar, Sardinia, Florida, Hispaniola and New Mexico. Mostly, these are of value to me because of the amount of time required to take them. Their units from Lombardy got placed in France, so they were able to garrison Paris immediately with a half stack. I was ready for them though as I had just started recruiting what I hoped would be 2 full stacks for the battle. Instead, I ended up with about 8 units within reach of Paris and 6 units close enough to reinforce.

    In winter, 1727, I declared on Spain. I moved the stack from Morea to Rome and brought another stack from Austria (I had used Croatia as a pawn with Venice and used them to retake it). Got some boats ready. One boat next to Naples. One boat took my army from Rome just past the southern Med port in Spain which had a healthy garrison. I was too close for comfort, so I prepared a decoy light galley for their trade route. Fully prepped, I fired the first shot.

    Moved stack from Croatia through Rome and into Naples. There was a reinforcing 6 unit semi-stack in the south, so I found a spare boat and sent some spare units to deal with him. The army from Naples went on a boat and went to Marseille, southern port in France. There is a full stack there just within reach... No reinforcements for you Spain!
    Snuck my experienced army on the ship from Rome past their fully loaded port. Moved the decoy into place on the trade route.

    Began my assault in South America. Sent 1 stack against guatemala, then put it right back on a boat and sent towards Panama. CLose, but not quite there.
    Dropped a stack in Cuba, unable to move.
    Fired a stack against New Andalusia and hopped them on the boat and was able to reach the port in the next territory over in the Amazon basin and take a few steps towards the goal.

    Then came the sticky bit. Turn.

    Spain took the bait and sent their fleet after the light galley on the trade route, ignoring my precious stack heading towards Gibraltar.

    I was unable to use the port in Gibraltar as Spain had ships in their Shipyard (2 more turns for a Naval Hospital... Sounds like a nice freebie to me), so I landed immobile in Gibraltar, leaving the ship unable to move and surrounded by red circles of engagement (Barbary's and Spain). Next will come the difficult battle for Portugal, then I will move troops in on foot towards Madrid. They have 4 stacks in Madrid, 1.5 in Portugal and when I finished for the night, still one ill-fated stack in the south of France for when I have time.

    In the Americas, I moved on the Amazon region (yes I forgot the name) and took panama. Moved the force in Cuba in and out and back on a ship towards Louisiana to get ready for fighting the 5 stacks that the Cherokee have waiting for me. Also discovered a fleet of Spanish ships in that area too... Might lose a stack at sea to them.

    This is only the second time I have taken the Black Hills region, but I remember them being tough as nails. My local friendly Protestant Missionary informs me that they have nearly 2 full stacks. Could be more hidden too. I have a stack and a half on the way, hopefully will make it up to 2 stacks... I've only got 4 line infantry in that area, the rest are native baseline type troops... cav, musketmen, bowmen etc...

    I can confirm that the recruitment line is cleared when you upgrade your city so it can no longer recruit Native Warriors. Hrmph.

    So it was a momentous 4 turns! I lost 3 territories, including a bitter loss of Hindustan, lost my position advantage over Maratha, but by winter 1728, I was able to regain them. Up to 59 territories. 52k/turn taxes, 47k/turn from trade and 3k from 'other'. Upkeep is 55k with total expense of 60k/turn. Net of 42k on the next turn. Now 5 stacks in Americas, 2 in India, 3.5 in Europe.

    The stacks in Americas will probably go towards Iceland and Denmark when the Cherokee are finished.

    I still need to actually take Spain and Portugal, then I've got to get a plan for punching through to all the furthest reaches of Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman territories. And Poland and Prussia in between. And be mostly done by 1742 so I can have enough forces for GB.

    I'd say I've got about a 60% chance of making it on time.
    Last edited by eschelar; May 01, 2012 at 02:17 PM.

  8. #28
    =Prince Nuada='s Avatar Semisalis
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    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    Quote Originally Posted by eschelar View Post
    Oddly, in my game, Prussia got beaten back by Austria a bit and when I moved in on them, they got landlocked surrounded by Poland and Courland. With 2.5 stacks, neither Poland nor Courland wants to mess with them, so they have just been sitting there buying tech from me whenever I need a bit of extra cash. We are still technically at war too... heheheh.
    I do this to Prussia when I play as Austria. Before attacking and overwhelming Brandenburg in turn 2, I secure alliances with Saxony and Poland & Lithuania.What this means is Saxony counts towards your numbers attacking Brandenburg and if left unchecked East Prussia builds up a full stack and rips the guts out of Poland & Lithuania (and sometimes Courland).
    I find it to be a useful tactic to distract Prussia and weaken Poland & Lithuannia whilst you develop your main army in Austria and invade the Balkans with a cheap militia army.


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  9. #29

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    GB is protestant that is why they left the church up

  10. #30

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    lol. quite right Ninjasan. Too used to taking territory from France and other nations in Europe... Silly me.

    Nuada, personally, I'd prefer to see Prussia crushed and fight Poland instead. They are softer targets. Prussian Line is strong. Fighting 2.5 stacks of Prussian forces compared to 2.5 stacks of Polish, I'd rather fight the Polish.

  11. #31
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    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    Oh, I agree. I let them weaken each other, build-up my strength, the take out East Prussia (and the Prussians), usually gaining Poland without going to war with Poland & Lithuania. Then all I am left with with a much weakened Poland & Lithuania which I can either annihilate or force into a protectorate to screen Russia.


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  12. #32

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    lol... just ran myself officially 'too thin'.

    launched my assault on the Maratha, taking Bijapur, Hyderabad, Berar, Rajpootana and Gujarat all in 1 turn. What I didn't see was the 5 stacks they had hidden around the continent. I went for the 'strategic' assault instead of the 'breaking their back' assault and it kinda backfired. Managed to hang on to Bijapur - only about 400 men left, but I'll lose it next turn. Lost Hyderabad and Gujarat, but the problem is that I only had 3 stacks and I just lost 2, with 5 of theirs bearing down on me. 3.5 stacks heading towards my only remaining stack and Hindustan undefended. Fortunately, by the time they can get a stack to Hindustan, I will have recruited a full stack. Go go gadget Hindustan!

    But the Maratha are officially "pished off!".

    Fortunately, on that same turn, I also completed the razing of Spain, so now I have 3.5 experienced stacks on their way to India.

    Row row row your third rate..... gently 'cross the pond... la la la.... (LOOK LIVELY BOYS!)

    With turns like this, it's difficult to make progress because I've got to find the time to play out 5-8 battles on the end turn in one sitting. 1900 men against 650 on VH/H? Oh yeah, no autoresolve there...

    On a side note, I *love* carcass shot. I think I'm going to actually decline to study quicklime. I've now seen a barrage of carcass wipe out 150 men in one shot, and another time, took out half of their 2 native warriors while they were getting into position to charge my front lines. I was shocked to see a single round drop in and take out 42 men. They went to 64/120 and 91/120 and charged, but the ball was already in the air and 4 more rounds landed just after the men in front started moving dropping them to 61/120 and 54/120 and they started to rout. Then my guys fired their volleys and dropped them down to 39/120 and 42/120. See ya!

    Oddly, at the end of battle statistics, that showed up as 12 and 13 men killed for each of my two howitzer units. ???

    I usually do most of my 'sweeping' after I have mortars and quicklime and I never see those kinds of numbers... Plus it just looks awesome.

    So 1729, turn 61 and things just got ugly.

    Next turn, Black Hills and Cherokee. Hopefully I can take big losses at the Black hills and free up some upkeep costs. Have 2 fairly healthy stacks just south of the 2 capitals and 2 of their 5 stacks have been crushed. Georgia fell easily.

    Update for later in the day... 1732 now and finally getting a handle on the situation in India. I think I have killed more than 15000 Maratha soldiers today. Craziness. On one turn, I fought off more than 3500 soldiers with one stack in 6 separate battles, plus fighting off 2500 with two damaged stacks of only 600-800 men each PLUS taking on 2200 soldiers with 1200 (only lost 240 men!!!!!). That's just on the end turn. Yeesh. Played more than 7 hours and only moved 3 turns.

    I swapped Bijapur for peace (thank goodness they took it... last time I tried to sue for peace was with the mughals and they wouldn't take it even though I offered them Mexico, Bavaria, Vienna, and 4 other small territories...).

    Recruited replacement forces in India and brought my stacks forward from Europe. So far, I've lost around 5000 men in the last 3 turns. Army upkeep went from 62k down to currently around 46k (and I've been recruiting like mad in India). Maratha has blockaded me in 6 places, three in trade theaters, although a small fleet of 3rd rates is on its way.

    The game has been 'cheating' I think. I watched a full stack run away from me and when I went to fight it the very next turn, their units were all full. Suspicious.... Also, all of my protestant missionaries mysteriously died within 2 or 3 turns of each other, even though they weren't very old. I've got one missionary in there again observing... He's almost at Bengal.

    Gujarat is barely hanging on, but after Sindh brought 2 surprise stacks from out of nowhere and my general faced 3 more stacks (a total of 6 including the stack in gujarat for the initial siege) over the space of 3 turns, his forces are surprisingly healthy 10 units have perished and I have received reinforcements from up north. Got 1 stack in Amenadjar and a stack that can't move in Bijapur (unhappy populace - gonna have to say goodbye to the Modern Uni... oh well, only about 4 techs left to research anyhow). All they have left is Bengal, Sindh, Malawa and I'm coming at Malawa from 2 directions next turn.

    My biggest concern at this point is time. This was a bit of a setback due to my foolishness. I would guess that it sets me back about 3 turns. I was already behind about 6 turns from my targets.

    In 20 turns, I'm going to need to be starting prep to finish GB. I only have 76/135 total territories in the game.

    In 5 turns, I'm going to need to be facing the Ottomans.

    In 3 turns, I need to start throwing mud at the Poland/Denmark/Russia alliance. AND get started on Sweden. That's a lot of ground to cover. I think I will stop building economy at this point, shifting my priority to military spending. I think I will start recruiting in eastern Europe for my big push against the triumvirate in the North. I've got the Barbaries and will be landing troops in Malta shortly. I will prepare 4 stacks for the ottomans (2 in Greece, 2 in Rumelia) and set up a little bit of backup for mopping up minor provinces. At the same time, I will set up stacks for Sweden and Prussia.

    One amusing highlight of a recent battle was wating a Qizibashi musketeer unit garrison a building way out of range. But howies can move... So move they did and switched to round shot. I set the camera to watch from the top of the building. PUMMELED. hehehe. I didn't know that it tracked all the bodies when a house got smashed. Cool. Another interesting thing was that the open top house allowed people on the roof. When one of them got killed (rare with round shot), someone would come up from the bottom to replace him.
    Last edited by eschelar; May 05, 2012 at 01:21 PM.

  13. #33

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    1734 (sorry I got a couple of the years mixed up doing bad math...)

    The first occurrence of the 'save file corruption bug'. Had to redo a turn, but it turned out similarly.

    Maratha just met their bitter end. That gets that off my chest! Phew! that was a few turns of insanity. Where were they keeping all those stacks?

    Anyhow the very next turn I played (actually it was 1732, not 1733 on turn 65), Poland DoW on me. What sucked about that was that most of my troops in europe at this time are low man-count deterrents. I had already started prepping for a jump into Russia and had 2 ships on the way through the meditereranean. After taking Malta, I moved my troops to Morea for consolidation (too stressful fighting battles that you know will ahve lots of casualties, but most of your infantry already have 3 chevrons. That means they can't lose more than 15 men or else they can't be replenished. That's no big deal if you have 1, 2 and 3 chevron units in your stack, but when there are no low experience units, it becomes sort of a chore.

    So I was actually recruiting mass troops in Europe to send down to Morea when the DoW came in. (It was basically jumping the gun 1 turn). I fought off a small force at Hungary and reconsolidated my front lines there to provide a stronger deterrent. Right now Poland has 1 stack in each major territory, but not much else. Foolish at this stage in the game especially considering the mass of orange on the map right now. Brandenburg, Saxony, Moravia , Bavaria, Vienna, Venetia and Hungary are a Wildly powerful recruiting zone.

    Sent 2 stacks of fresh troops (and I now have light infantry, so a smattering of them too) to add to 3 stacks already present and 2 stacks coming up from behind and I was able to send 6 stacks towards Russia's southern shores. Crimea, Bohemia and Kiev have already fallen. 2 stacks will continue North, 2 will head east and 2 will head west to reinforce my troops in Vienna. The biggest problem at this point is Prussia. There is just one territory between me and them, so as soon as I take that territory, they will send their stack against me. Given the strength of Prussian troops, I am feeling 'cautious'. I will prepare enough strength to fight the Prussians before invading. That will work out well because it will allow me just a bit faster takedown as I plow through Poland all the way up to Ingria (owned by the russians). Russia has been in a very invulnerable place for some time, so they appear to have few armies compared to the last few times I've run them through. I'm still going to need more strength to deal with Dagestan and Georgia, but that's OK.

    Ottomans got friendly with me and kept offering to take Croatia from me and swap it for something horrendous with no strategic value. But one time, they offered me Palestine. It's among the worst in the Lower middle east, but it's perfect for landing my troops and agents. I'm not in a hurry to engage them. I think I can wait until 1738 or 1740 even, since I will have troops pushing hard through Persia as well. With the completion of the Marathas, I am now leading troops from Punjab up against Afghanistan and already started prepping sloops to drag a stack or two against their capital. I might be done Persia by 1736 or 1737. Poland will take 3, maybe 4 turns.

    I've landed a stack in Iceland - won't be any trouble. less than half a stack there. On my last campaign, they had 3 stacks there. After the troops head out on their way towards Poland/Prussia, I will keep pumping. I may need reinforcements against Russia. maybe not. Either way, I will prepare troops for assaulting Sweden and Denmark. Hopefully all done by 1738. That will have India and continental Europe/NorthAfrica. Except the ottomans. It might take until 1740 to finish the ottomans. We'll see. Most of their forces are in Rumelia and greece. I can land 1 full stack every turn in Morea. Fresh as a daisy.

    So I expect some serious military spending in the next 5 or 6 turns.

    Once that's all taken care of, I should have enough troops left over to prepare a british invasion. I might send a stack or two to the US to get ready.

    Having the Maratha taken care of by 1734 is a big relief. The tempo is going to start increasing very quickly now as I no longer need to be spread out. I can build mediocre forces in the US and handle most of it with them, bringing one stack back to the US will make it a cake walk.

    Tech is all basically taken care of. I have opted to stop my tech at Platoon Firing (no riflemen and no percussion caps) and Carcass shot and I'm very very close to getting the last couple of Enlightenment techs and there will be a few Naval techs too. Already disassembled half of my schools.

    In 1732, I was able to bring some third rates against the last trade node held by the Maratha, so now that's all of them.

    Income was up to around 59k when I started in India what feels like so very long ago, but is back down to around 39k a turn due to ballooning military forces. Oh yea, back up to 44k because I'm not being raided and blockaded anymore... That's good. Upkeep costs are just over 60k a turn. Income from taxes is around 74. Trade income has fallen since I Maratha found it difficult to continue trading with a pair of knives in their back, now it's around 34k. Actually, I just got a trading agreement with the Ottomans, and I think I forgot to check that. Maybe higher.

    It's getting exciting again!

  14. #34
    Sir Furlong's Avatar Ordinarius
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    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    How much land has the British have in the Americas? Just the normal amount?

  15. #35

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    Just fyi quicklime and carcass shot don't count towards battle statistics kills, i think it's a bug of some sort.
    This is an epic campaign, good luck and godspeed!

  16. #36

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    Thanks BuffaloNinjaRastaMon.

    The brits have 8 territories. I let them have Iroquois in exchange for some decent tech. Doesn't really bother me. I won't need it for recruiting and the income was only minimal and of course they are protestant so we will have the same goals. I have rakes and missionary spies all through the area to keep tabs on their troop levels.

    I think leaving NY as the last territory I take will be the icing on the cake.

    Got to remember to set up windowed mode and start taking some screenies... That last savefile bug took away one of the harder battles. Maratha's last stand of a sort. Oddly, it was the third time fighting the same battle since I opted for an autoresolve 'scare away' instead of a full battle when I took Berar. Except the first time, I had an extra half stack to help me win it. They ran away and installed themselves in the Ashram (blocking its demolition order). I went up against them without the half stack of support (there were other smaller armies on their way to retake Berar) and as their numbers were low (and it was late at night), I opted again for an autoresolve, this time taking surprising losses and breaking the back of my force. They ran back again to the iron camp near orissa.

    When I fought them again, they had replenished to full (as had I) and we were basically back to square one taking Berar. Except no half stack to back me up. Fought it out and my 1400 men versus their 1947 took 450 casualties and wiped out 1933/1947. The two survivors ran to Orissa where they met some other dutchmen... who sent them flying...

    Oh yeah. so I'm at 85/137 (checked my numbers - thanks RMSN Nike).
    Last edited by eschelar; May 07, 2012 at 12:18 AM.

  17. #37

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    OK, so you want screenshots. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE SCREENSHOTS!

    Hrm. I guess those 3 rings are right.

    Campaign Map - Europe
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    National Summary Over Italy and Central Europe
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Campaign Map - India - My six sick stacks seek six slick sloops. Naturally, to seize and slaughter sorry sods overseas.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Prestige Over Russia and Poland - 86/137 regions conquered
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Got them Black Hills! National Prestige Ranking. Poor Britain.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    More Black Hills - Sweet ministers... I hadn't even noticed!
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Itching to take a photo of this guy in a 1 on 1000 battle... Maybe I need to run him up to Prussia to take on 2 stacks....
    His name is Jacob Cornelissen. His name is Jacob Cornelissen. His name is Jacob Cornelissen. His name is Jacob Cornelissen.
    His name is Jacob Cornelissen. His sacrifice will be of blood and his reward will be glory. His name is Jacob Cornelissen.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Henry Winckel - Man on Fire (sorry pic got a bit gibbled in Paint... Photoshop has the copy/paste bug and refuses to fix itself and I already fixed 6 mucked up pics tonight.)
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Hein Van der Werff - A spoiled brat if I ever saw one... most of his battles have been dirt easy ones and he had the Brits backing him up. But oooooooh look at all them shiny golden stars. Big Stinkin' Deal.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Geerard lookin all innocent. Where you get all them stars Guv'nah? There be blood on ye hands. This guy recently took the Black Hills, losing almost his entire 1.5 stack army (perfect for my uses as I had no further use for his soldiers). Oddly, he doesn't have the Bloody attribute. I've lost a few hundred men and picked up the Bloody attribute. This guy lost well over 1500. (sorry if this pic is a tad misleading, I just noticed that isn't his army... the army is in Brandenburg but he's in Michigan I right-clicked the portait in Lists).
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    My not-so-constant gardener. This rare trait showed up after he took Brandenburg I think. His lone stack successfully defended against 8 successive armies (only 1 large contingent, but quite a few medium sized armies. Equivalent of around 2 full stacks) in a single end-turn standing right next to Portugal (owned by Spain), losing less than 1/3 of his men (total of around 850 men left after starting the round with around 1300 - actually, count them, there's 1347 - the grens did not replenish before the battles). The snapshot is from an old save file, just before I loaded him on a ship and dropped him off in Portugal.
    Filippus Van der Burch in 1729
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    I don't know what happened. He certainly hasn't failed in any of his endeavors. He took out Morocco, Tunis and Tripolitania after his escapades in Portugal. All successful romps. I have several Shovel bearing generals, but I always thought that was a lower trait.
    Filippus Van der Burch in 1734
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Well I hope to add more screenies later. It was more fun than I thought - especially considering that they are mostly statistics...

    Anything specific you guys wanted to see or check?
    Last edited by eschelar; May 07, 2012 at 09:22 AM.

  18. #38
    The Useless Member's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    Quote Originally Posted by eschelar View Post
    OK, so you want screenshots. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE SCREENSHOTS!

    Hrm. I guess those 3 rings are right.

    ...
    Nice screenshots.

  19. #39
    =Prince Nuada='s Avatar Semisalis
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    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    You're certainly cutting it close.
    Promise us that if you don't make it you will do yourself a favour and install IS2?


    РОССИЯ | PREUßEN | ÖSTERREICH

  20. #40

    Default Re: World Dom by 1750?

    That is the plan. I had planned to go with DMUC though. I'll give each of the countries I haven't played yet a little run-through. Of course, I'm having so much trouble downloading the durned thing that I might just go with IS anyhow I like the increased focus on nation individuality. Heck, I might even play Poland if they made it interesting! lol... Might even get back to GB if the naval invasions possess a real threat now...

    I'm pretty sure that 'cutting it close' is the only way to achieve World Dom by 1750. I had 90 something territories as Spain when I finished my last campaign... in 1768 or something like that. that's almost 40 turns more.

    I'd still love to see what others can do. I'm only a mediocre player with a fairly low CPS, so I bet others could manage even faster. Or perhaps the same, but with VH/VH.

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